“Find a Way” was the message, if not the life lesson, greeting attendees to the Lake County Safety Expo held May 19 at Lakeland Community College.

In its fifth year, the expo serves to raise awareness and focus on prevention of workplace injuries and unsafe practices.

And if any of the nearly 300 guests thought the event was merely going to feature speakers citing statistics and incidence reports, they quickly realized the opposite when keynote speaker Brad Hurtig took to the stage.

Nearly 15 years ago, Hurtig was a junior at Fairview High School in Sherwood, Ohio, near Defiance, when he was involved in an industrial accident at a stamping factory which resulted in the amputation of both his hands. Hurtig, who’s been featured on CBS, ESPN and in The New York Times, continues to use his personal experience to emphasize the importance of safety in the workplace.

“‘Find a Way’ also means finding new opportunities,” he said. “It’s about not giving up. It’s believing anything is possible. You don’t quit, you keep it up.”

Though tempted to give up, Hurtig never acted on it.

“If you’re thirsty enough, you will find a way and make the needed sacrifices,” he said. “Adapt, adjust, do things differently. This also equates to safety. Push yourself harder than you ever thought you could.”

Hurtig, in fact, did push himself, later rejoining Fairview High’s football team. As a middle linebacker, he led the team in tackles with 111, setting a season record and earning first team all-state honors as a senior—all with no hands.

“After losing my hands, if you’d have told me I was going to be back on the team, I’d have thought you were giving me a hard time, that it was wishful thinking,” he said. “But when you want something, you go after it, relentlessly.”

Hurtig’s message for the workplace also was delivered to Auburn Career Center students later in the day.

“This was an awesome presentation,” said Scott Turner, safety consultant specialist at State of Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. “What Brad has persevered through is amazing, and it makes our problems seem not so big.”

Lake County Safety Council Director Andrea Vann, who’s also been on the organization’s steering committee for three years, said efforts to make the expo more inclusive was evident by the turnout.

“This is also the first year the expo has been free and half a day,” she said. “We changed it so it could include more businesses and involve a wider area of workers. We don’t want things to get stagnant. With funding from the BWC, we’re able to give back to the community through these services and raised awareness.

“We also sponsored Brad to appear at Auburn (Career Center),” she said. “They can learn from his story, from seeing results of a severe accident, and understand when they enter the workforce that adhering to safety guidelines and following protocol isn’t a disciplinary instruction or a supervisor barking orders. It’s in everyone’s best interest to go home the way you came in, to eliminate catastrophic events that can alter your life. We try to instill that in everything—safety first and always.”